WELCOME to the Retriever Daily Report of the 2011 National Retriever Championship, November 13-19, brought to you by the National Retriever Club and written by Tina Ebner and Gwen Jones. We hope you enjoy these daily updates on the National, held this year in Oakdale, CA.

Saturday, November 19, 2011

Saturday, November 19, 2011

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Saturday November 19

The Tenth Series -- Land Quad

We are sitting on top of a very high hill. It's currently 47 degrees with an expected high of 57 degrees with partly sunny conditions. There is a flurry of activity as the traffic committee parks all the remaining trucks for the contestants, spectators and workers. The Finalists will arrive in a procession. The Honor Guard has arrived and is walking through their procedure for the morning's ceremony.

The 10th Series is a Land Quad. The mat is on top of the hill facing east. The test is set in what appears to be a large bowl. The order is left to right, around the horn. Bird #1, at 125 yards on the left, is a retired, dead hen mallard station. This bird is thrown to the left, up a hill. Bird #2, at 225 yards, is a rooster pheasant flyer station. This bird is shot to the left and is behind and just right of the retired hen mallard station. Bird #3, at 250 yards, is in front of the mat on the far side of the test. This is a hen mallard flyer shot to the right. Bird #4, at 160 yards, is to the handlers right. This is a rooster pheasant flyer station and it is shot to the left towards the hen mallard flyer.

Both test dogs completed the test in approximately 12 minutes per dog. The judges have made a few changes on where the birds are to land they appear to be satisfied with their test and have called for the first running dog at 9:48 am PT. The wind direction is coming from the dog's back on the line. Test sketch to come...

Left hand retired

Middle left flyer

Middle right flyer

Right hand flyer

The first bird is thrown to the left, not to the right as shown in the video. After the change, there was not another test dog.

The first running dog, #71, had a no-bird on the right hand flyer. This means that he has to go back to the end of the line--correction, he had to go back three dogs.

At 11:50 am the 2011 National Open concluded. All twelve dogs have finished the tests. Five of the twelve dogs had a handle in the Tenth Series. The sun is bright, the temperatures are warming up and the judges have gone to make their final decision.

And the winner of the 2011 National Open is......... #71 FC Watermark's Running Back, LM Owned by Cynthia & Richard TallmanHandled by Jim Gonia